I’d have to agree. Heavenly Prize is worthy enough and I wouldn’t have lost sleep over Blind Luck if she had been voted in. While all of their careers were commendable and they all deserve respect, none of the others—equine or Human—deserve the honor, in my opinion.

I don’t do twitter, nor do I have a vote, so in all due respect to Jeremy.....If it were a turf jock HOF, I agree but then again, let’s consider Fernando Toro or heck, even Brice Blanc. Now I think C Nak is roughly comparable to Toro and he’s better than Blanc and you can probably make a case that he’s similar to guys like Eddie Maple or Alex Solis. But just because they got the benefit of the doubt for being marginal candidates but less headstrong doesn’t mean the door should be left wide open. Has Jeremy taken up the good fight for P Val? I think Mr. Balan needs to get out from behind his keyboard.

I can read tweets I just don’t choose to join in on the fun. I guess when C Nak comes up, the first two things that run through my head are Amazing Turf Jock and Hothead, not always in that order. HOF’s are always interesting to say the least. I once had a discussion with a baseball writer about Tommy John. His view is that TJ fell just short as a pitcher. I countered that I didn’t necessarily disagree but his name is linked to a surgical procedure that has changed the face of baseball and while he didn’t perform the surgery, TJ is the model of a patient that was able to be successful afterwards and it was performed on him back in the days when surgery was done with a knife and a fork. I argued whose name more often shows up in baseball related news during a season Cy Young or Tommy John? It’s probably close but my money is on TJ. Now if that doesn’t define fame, I don’t know what does and before someone wants to make a case for Mario Mendoza, TJ’s fame isn’t for not being able to hit water if he fell out of a boat.

I’m always overwhelmed at how many get in each year, and it really feels like a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately vote - so I’m elated that Heavenly Prize got in. Because if you saw her run in the 90s, you wouldn’t have a doubt. G1 winner at 2, 3, and 4; eight G1 wins; never worse than 3rd in 18 starts. She was very good. Not that the others weren’t, but she’s certainly deserving.

Curtis wrote:I can read tweets I just don’t choose to join in on the fun. I guess when C Nak comes up, the first two things that run through my head are Amazing Turf Jock and Hothead, not always in that order. HOF’s are always interesting to say the least. I once had a discussion with a baseball writer about Tommy John. His view is that TJ fell just short as a pitcher. I countered that I didn’t necessarily disagree but his name is linked to a surgical procedure that has changed the face of baseball and while he didn’t perform the surgery, TJ is the model of a patient that was able to be successful afterwards and it was performed on him back in the days when surgery was done with a knife and a fork. I argued whose name more often shows up in baseball related news during a season Cy Young or Tommy John? It’s probably close but my money is on TJ. Now if that doesn’t define fame, I don’t know what does and before someone wants to make a case for Mario Mendoza, TJ’s fame isn’t for not being able to hit water if he fell out of a boat.

I've always wondered if any low-profile baseball player ever had ALS before Lou Gehrig but never got his name attached to the disorder because he wasn't a star and didn't play for the most celebrated team in the game. In the UK and other English-speaking places where baseball players aren't household names, incidentally, ALS is known as "motor neuron disease." If Jesse Owens had died of it, it's a good bet that Jesse Owens' Disease would have stuck as a popular name for it outside the US.

Remember "Steve Blass Disease"? Blass was a pretty good pitcher for the Pirates -- a solid, Tommy John-like starter -- who, over the course of one off-season, seemingly forgot how to pitch. He just couldn't throw a strike and the few strikes he did throw were hammered. For a while, you'd get sportswriters and sportscasters referring to other pitchers in similar situations as having that "disease," but I haven't seen or heard the phrase in years, maybe because Blass has been retired for 45 years, maybe because the affliction is so rare that the opportunity to refer to it doesn't come up frequently enough to keep the reference recognizable.

I remember Steve Blass and his affliction well. I have Sirius/XM radio and the MLB station broadcasts games from all over MLB throughout the course of a season. The last Pirate game I heard, Blass was one of the announcers. He actually talked about the end of his career and says the same thing now he did then, he doesn’t know what happened. A more recent example was a Cardinal pitcher, Rick Ankiel. He was such an accomplished hitter he actually went down to the low minors and became an outfielder and had a decent MLB career at that point. The Dodgers had a real spark plug of a second baseman in the ‘80’s, Steve Sax, who from the beginning of 1983 until roughly August of 1984 couldn’t throw consistently to first base. He went on to a very good career and became a very reliable fielder but when his name comes up, people only seem to remember the throwing problems. The same thing happened to Twins and then Yankee second baseman, Chuck Knoblach in the ‘90’s and it effectively ended his career. In the ‘80’s, the Mets had a catcher—Mackey Sasser, I believe—that all of a sudden couldn’t throw the ball back to the pitcher. I think all of these men got some psychiatric help of various degrees but only Sax and Ankiel were able to overcome it, albeit Ankiel at another position. I have heard of Steve Sax Syndrome but it hasn’t lasted like Steve Blass Disease which only seems to come up when suddenly a pitcher, chronically, can’t find the plate. I still stand by my assessment, though. Tommy John is on the borderline as a pitcher anyway, and he was a better pitcher post-surgery. I’d put him in Cooperstown and play up the now known as Tommy John Surgery on the plaque.